1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in the construction and manufacture of polymeric bags. In particular, the present invention relates to improvements to scented trash bags.
2. Description of the Related Art
Polymeric bags are ubiquitous in modern society and are available in countless combinations of varying capacities, thicknesses, dimensions, and colors. The bags are available for numerous applications including typical consumer applications such as long-term storage, food storage, and trash collection. Like many other consumer products, increased demand and new technology have driven innovations in polymeric bags improving the utility and performance of such bags. The present invention is an innovation of particular relevance to polymeric bags used for trash collection.
Polymeric bags are manufactured from polymeric film produced using one of several manufacturing techniques well-known in the art. The two most common methods for manufacture of polymeric films are blown-film extrusion and cast-film extrusion. In blown-film extrusion the resulting film is tubular while cast-film extrusion produces a generally planar film. Regardless of the manufacturing method utilized, the present invention is generally applicable to drawstring trash bags typically manufactured from a continuous web of plastic film. Manufacturing methods for the production of drawstring bags from a web of material are shown in numerous prior art references including, but not limited to, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,196,757 and 4,624,654, which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Modern trash bags are commonly sold and marketed with a scent or fragrance incorporated into the bag. In fact, scented bags have seen an increase in popularity. Typically, the scent is incorporated into the bag during the extrusion process in the manufacturing of the polymeric film. Resin with a concentration of a scent producing volatile oil may be incorporated with unscented resin into a blown film extruder which produces the web of polymeric film that is converted into bags. Thus, the scent or fragrance agent is incorporated throughout the film used to manufacture the trash bags. The scent carrying oil is known to migrate to the surface of the bag once manufacturing of the bag is complete.
One disadvantage of the above-described method of providing a scent or fragrance to trash bags is that a considerable amount of the volatile scent agents may be volatized during the film extrusion process. This requires use of more scent than otherwise would be required and may pose various challenges in the extrusion process. Another disadvantage is that if the resultant scented film is reprocessed or recycled, the end products produced from the reprocessed material may partially retain the scent, which may not be desired for certain end-products which are typically products other than kitchen trash bags. Furthermore, when reprocessed, various scents are combined since recycled materials are intermingled; hence, items produced with the reprocessed material may have undesirable mixtures of various scents and fragrances.
Other solutions have been disclosed by the prior art to provide scent to a thermoplastic bag without incorporating scent through the film of the bag. For instance, United States Published Patent Appl. No. 2009/0175564A1, entitled “Bag with Improved Features” discloses a strip disposed on an inside surface of the bag that can include a scent. However, the bag of this published application exposes the scent strip outside of the bag, failing to prevent a user from coming into contact with the strip and fails to control the release of the volatile scent since the strip is exposed on an external surface of the bag.
Another solution in the prior art is disclosed by United States Published Patent Appl. No. 2009/0026101A1, entitled “Disposable Scent Sanitary Bag.” This published application discloses a drawstring bag with a scent strip located on an interior side of a panel of the bag below the bag's drawstring. As with the solution discussed above, the bag of this disclosure exposes the scent carrying element and thus has some of the same inherit disadvantages.
In light of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a means for imparting a scent to trash bags by other means than incorporating it into the polymeric film during the extrusion of the polymer. It would further be desirable to provide a solution that encloses the scent element while still providing adequate scent to a user of the bag. The present invention represents a novel solution to address these needs.